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Update: ghetto saya done! Gave up on the handle...

So like the title says, I decided to give up on the handle. Sanding away the tang to shorten the emoto using only sandpaper was hard enough.

I still wanted a saya, though, because I don't like knives without them. All I used to make this saya is below:

cherry wood (1/4" thick and 1/8" thick pieces)
multi-file/rasp tool
sandpaper
coping saw
victorinox trekker swiss army knife (in place of a chisel, lol. You'll see from the band aid on my thumb why this is a bad idea. Especially if you don't have a vice.)

I messed up a few things. I didn't know how to make a symmetrical saya while only carving one side, so it's asymmetrical. To make matters worse, I carved the cavity on the wrong side of the saya (left as opposed to right). Lastly, the knife now gets stuck a bit on the way out, because it gets titled in the saya and its heel digs in. Is there any fix for this last issue?

I really hope nobody tells me that cherry is a terrible wood for sayas

Thanks for the offer. I think it looks ok now, but I'll let you know if I change my mind.

Anyone know if it's possible for particular woods to rust a knife? The hagane in this knife changes colors a little bit, since it's only semi-stainless, and sitting in the saya made the hagane discolor on some parts. I wonder if it's just leftover glue or some kind of reaction. I made sure to get glue out of the saya and none was rubbing off on the knife when I was playing with it, but letting it sit in there led to the development of a layer on the hagane that kind of looked and scraped off a little like dried glue.

I've had issues with "wet wood," (over 12% MC) rusting my plane blades when carelessly left dirty on a work piece. Pine and poplar have been the worst yet so now I avoid all work on wood until it reaches a suitable moisture content. What was the MC content on your piece? You can get a pretty good idea by weighing a small scrap piece and then putting in a microwave for 10 seconds or so and weighing again after allowing to cool for 10 minutes.

Hmm...interesting. So if I take the moisture content down, will it stay that way or is it a tendency of certain woods to soak up moisture? I don't have a scale, so unfortunately, I can't weigh any of the scraps of cherry that I have sitting around. Maybe I'll just let this thing sit for a few days to fully dry out (the wood did get wet at one point).